Bibliography: Middle East Literature

Palace Walk
by Naguib Mahfouz, ISBN: 0385264666 (Purchase this Book)

Palace Walk is part one of Naguib Mahfouz'' most revered trilogy. Mahfouz was the first Arabic author to win the nobel prize in literature and his novels plunge into the fiery depths of modern Egyptian culture. His ''Cairo Trilogy,'' which begins with Palace Walk, follows an Egyptian family through several generations.', '

Palace Walk
by Naguib Mahfouz, ISBN: 0385264666 (Purchase this Book)

Palace Walk is part one of Naguib Mahfouz'' most revered trilogy. Mahfouz was the first Arabic author to win the nobel prize in literature and his novels plunge into the fiery depths of modern Egyptian culture. His ''Cairo Trilogy,'' which begins with Palace Walk, follows an Egyptian family through several generations.

The Journey of Ibn Fattouma
by Naguib Mahfouz, ISBN: 0385423349 (Purchase this Book)

The Days: His Autobiography in Three Parts
by Taha Hussein, et al., ISBN: 9774246357 (Purchase this Book)

Taha Hussein is one of great masters of modern Egyptian fiction. The Days is his three part memoir which recounts his education as a child, his college years and his years spent in France. Hussein was blinded at an early age but managed to climb the ladder in Egyptian society to become one of Egypt''s most formidable novelists.

The Secret Life of Saeed
by Emile Habibi, ISBN: 1566564158 (Purchase this Book)

Cities of Salt
by Abdel Rahman Munif, ISBN: 039475526X (Purchase this Book)
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Endings
by Abdel Rahman Munif, ISBN: 0704326515
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Prairies of Fever
by Ibrahim Nasr Allah, et al., ISBN: 1566561035 (Purchase this Book)

Beirut Nightmares
by Ghada Samman, ISBN: 070438065X (Purchase this Book)

from the book jacket: "Beirut Nightmares is set at the height of the Lebanese Civil War. The narrator, trapped in her flat for two weeks by street battles and sniper fire, writes a series of vignettes peopled by an extraordinary cast of characters, some drawn from the amazing waking world and others living only in the sleeping minds of those suffering in the conflict." Probably Samman''s best work, much superior to Beirut ''75, another one of her better known novels. If possible, read in conjunction with a history of the 1982 Lebanese Civil War to get a fuller appreciation of the events she describes.

The Essential Rumi
by Rumi, ISBN: 078580871X (Purchase this Book)

The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master
by Hafiz, ISBN: 0140195815 (Purchase this Book)

Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems
by Mahmoud Darwish, ISBN: 0520237544 (Purchase this Book)

The Pages of Day and Night
by Adonis [Ali Ahmed Said], ISBN: 0810160811 (Purchase this Book)

Woman at Point Zero
by Nawal el-Saadawi, ISBN: 0862321107 (Purchase this Book)

Memoirs from the Women''s Prison
by Nawal el-Sadawi, ISBN: 0520088883 (Purchase this Book)

Seasons of Migration to the North
by Tayeb Salih, ISBN: 0435900668 (Purchase this Book)

Out of Place: A Memoir
by Edward Said, ISBN: 0679730672 (Purchase this Book)

Men in the Sun and other Palestinian Stories
by Ghassan Kanafani, ISBN: 0894108573 (Purchase this Book)

Palestine''s Children: Returning to Haifa and Other Stories
by Ghassan Kanafani, ISBN: 0894108905 (Purchase this Book)

Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982
by Mahmoud Darwish, ISBN: 0520087682 (Purchase this Book)

The Palestinian poet Darwish offers a disturbing but beautiful account of the 1982 bombing of Beirut, a tragic moment in history when many Palestinian and Lebanese civilians lost their lives in the Israeli forces onslaught. The title "Memory for Forgetfulness" is partly a reference to the authors own hopes that, by "rembering" the events of 1982 through writing about it, that he will be able to "forget it," to put it aside, to free himself from the haunting memory of war and death. Memory for forgetfulness reads like a poem and it''s a very difficult read, which will frustrate any reader whose looking for a simple or straightforward rendition of the events in Beirut. It is definitely better to have a general knowledge of the events in 1982 before reading this, since the author makes many allusions to events that he does not explain (his Arabic readers will probably get his references, but his Western readers may not).